Sociolinguistic Variants and posteriorization of voiced fricatives in Alagoas, Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes the exchange of some voiced fricatives: labiodental [v], alveolar, [z] and palatal [ʒ] for glottal fricative [ɦ], a process called posteriorization, in the variety spoken in Alagoas. Based on Sociolinguistics, we measure the influence of linguistic factors, basically the posterior phonological context, and extralinguistic factors, such as gender, age, schooling, profession, place of birth and residence, for the occurrence of posteriorization of some voiced fricatives: labiodental [v], alveolar, [z] and palatal [ʒ] for glottal fricative [ɦ] with the aim of establishing a speaker’s sociolinguistic profile who practices this variety in Alagoas. The corpus was comprise of speeches of six informants, three men and three women,  as answers to a questionnaire and as readings of texts developed for this research. Discussions of the thus far incipient results show that nasalization influences posteriorization of some voiced fricatives: labiodental [v], alveolar, [z] and palatal [ʒ] for glottal fricative [ɦ], with a greater tendency for this phenomenon to occur in men’s speeches, born and raised in rural areas. Such a study, however, by its pioneering and rather restricted corpus, can serve as a starting point for more comprehensive researches.